Peer to Peer (P2P) refers to a network topology which enables nodes on a network to communicate with each other one to one (1:1). As short-distance communication technology has been enhanced in recent years, P2P is used as a term meaning a method for directly communicating between short-distance communication devices one to one.
In order to perform P2P communication between the short-distance communication devices, a network channel is established. For example, in the case of Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi client and an Access Point (AP) should be connected with each other first, or a Wi-Fi Group Owner (GO) and a Group Client (GC) should be connected with each other. As such, a one-to-one connection between the Wi-Fi device serving as an AP and a device serving as a client should be established for all devices.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a user interface for generating a Wi-Fi channel in a personal computer, and FIG. 2 is a view showing a user interface for generating a Wi-Fi channel in a mobile device.
When Wi-Fi is turned on in a device such as a personal computer or mobile device, a Wi-Fi module discovers other devices that the device can communicate with. The device displays a list of other devices or AP devices found through the discovery step on the screen as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The user may select another device or an AP that the user wishes to connect to by touching or clicking, and may be required to input a password when the device to be connected is locked by a password.
Related-art methods typically require a long time to discover and find other devices, and also require a long time to establish a connection between the devices in response to the user selecting a device to connect to. In addition, because the user must typically know an SSID indicating an AP to be used for communication or a password, user convenience may be degraded.
This problem also arises when communication is performed according to the other short-distance communication standards other than or in addition to Wi-Fi. For example, when a Bluetooth communication line is established, a discovery step is required between devices to perform communication, and a long time is required to associate the devices. Additionally, a process of selecting a device to connect to may cause inconvenience to the user.
Therefore, there is a demand for a method for transceiving a message easily and reducing the time required to communicate between devices in various short-distance communications.